Word: steep
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...bomb rested, half shrouded by its own grey parachute, on a steep 70° slope on the ocean floor. The danger was that it might slip farther down the incline into the craggy depths of a 3,000-ft. undersea valley in which the midget submarines could not maneuver. With that consideration in mind, Rear Admiral William S. Guest, 52, commander of the 15-vessel Task Force 65, put into action Plan Charlie to recover the unarmed 20-megaton weapon...
...first try, Alvin accidentally nudged the bomb, and it rolled 20 ft. down the steep slope. On the second try, the bomb ominously rolled another 5 ft. down the slope. For a third try, the Navy attempted to snag the bomb's parachute with grappling hooks, but that failed too. All the while, the Navy's recovery operation was severely handicapped by high winds that roiled the Mediterranean...
...feet above sea level. On the High Veld was, and is, life, in a rich, tropical savanna graced with tall grass and scattered umbrella-shaped trees. Africans once proudly owned and farmed it, but a century ago they were gradually pushed down its steep sides by the white settlers...
Hurt worst were the favelas, the shantytowns that house one-quarter of Rio's 4,000,000 inhabitants. Many of the favelas cling precariously to steep hills. As the rains loosened the soil, the shacks slid dizzily down. Many favela dwellers escaped; others failed to get out soon enough. Slum dwellers in the low-lying northern suburb fared little better: the entire area was flooded...
...rage and humiliation, Ali hid in a shed situated some 30 feet downhill from the hut, and there fell asleep. Wakened by the smell of smoke, he realized in horror that the widow's house was on fire, and made violent attempts to drag himself up the steep slope to save her. But his body, weakened by a lifetime of socially induced inactivity, was so feeble that it took him half an hour to cover less than 30 feet. When the villagers came running up the hill, they found Ahmad and the widow dead in bed and the beggar...